French companies have been building their presence in Poland for more than 30 years, increasingly reinvesting profits and locating high value-added projects in the country, including research and development centres and data centres. At the same time, Polish companies are becoming more active in the French market, while the Treaty of Nancy sets out the main directions of cooperation between the two countries, from energy and defence to digitalisation and the development of artificial intelligence.
“The key areas of cooperation between France and Poland are, of course, defence and energy, especially renewable and nuclear energy. We are also talking a lot about digitalisation and Europe’s digital sovereignty,” says Joanna Jaroch-Pszeniczna, General Director of the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce, in an interview with Newseria. “Another area that is very important, although less directly related to business, is culture, where activities are also planned for the coming years.”
The treaty signed in Nancy in May 2025 provides, among other things, for mutual security guarantees between Poland and France. The document includes a military support clause in the event of an attack on either country. Until now, France had made such a commitment only to Germany. The treaty on enhanced cooperation and friendship also covers cooperation in the defence industry, economy, agriculture and science, and its implementation is based partly on well-developed investment relations between the two countries.
“France is the third-largest foreign investor in Poland and has been building its presence here for more than 30 years. Half of revenues are reinvested, which we can see in new investment projects. The sector with the strongest presence is industry, which means we are a very strong economy in terms of production. Increasingly, we are talking about high-tech manufacturing,” says Joanna Jaroch-Pszeniczna.
“With the new treaty signed a year ago between France and Poland, which is a strategic treaty, we gained a certain vision and a developed plan. Now we need to implement it and translate into concrete action on the ground what politicians have jointly agreed and what is very good for business,” says Olivier Degand, Country Leader of Forvis Mazars in Poland, a company that has been present on the domestic market for 30 years.
The potential of Polish-French relations and further opportunities for their development were discussed by business representatives from both countries and public administration officials during the Polish-French Economic Forum organised by the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce. The event was held as part of the European Economic Congress in Katowice. Étienne de Poncins, France’s ambassador to Poland, emphasised that mutual relations had never been as good as they are today and that cooperation between two such large countries is crucial for building Europe’s future.
Business representatives pointed out that the Polish-French partnership is long-term and strategic. France is one of Poland’s most important economic partners, both in terms of investment and trade. According to data from the National Bank of Poland, the value of French direct investment in Poland exceeds PLN 114 billion. Companies such as TotalEnergies and Airbus were cited as examples of this presence. They represent French sectors that are strongly established in the Polish market: industry and energy.
A report published by the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Institute for Expert Debate and Analysis Quant Tank shows that French companies have located almost half of all their investments in Central and Eastern Europe in Poland. There are currently 1,200 French companies operating in the country. Together, they create 227,000 direct jobs and at least the same number of indirect jobs among their suppliers and partners.
The largest area of French investment in Poland is industrial processing, which accounts for 27% of total investment. This is followed by information and communication, together with transport and logistics, at 24%, and trade at 18%. Profits reinvested by French companies are allocated mainly to digitalisation, environmental protection, production automation and research and development.
“If French companies consider new R&D centres at all, they choose Poland. They also locate their data centres here. In the report we prepared two years ago, it turned out that every fourth project implemented in Poland is later developed and included in global supply chains. We can see the added value that Polish teams bring to French companies,” says the General Director of the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce.
Tadeusz Nowicki from the Lewiatan Confederation stressed that Poland is no longer merely an assembly location for industry. In recent years, it has moved up the value chain and is increasingly becoming a partner capable of co-creating more advanced industrial and technological projects. This is especially important because French companies are strongly present in knowledge-intensive sectors such as IT, telecommunications and professional services, as well as in pharmaceutical, chemical and transport equipment manufacturing.
“Poland has excellent engineering staff and talent, and we are also able to adapt very quickly, as 30 years of Polish economic development have shown. France, on the other hand, has experience, capital and a willingness to invest and cooperate with Poland, which it has demonstrated for many years. We believe this is an excellent combination of experience and youth. A good example is OVHcloud, which is headquartered in Roubaix and was founded by a Pole, Octave Klaba. It is an excellent example of how Poland and France can cooperate,” says Adam Ponichtera, Managing Director of Data4 in Poland.
The second direction of economic relations is also becoming increasingly visible: the growing presence of Polish companies in the French market. Polish businesses are entering a mature and competitive market, using technological competences and experience gained at home. Some of them are expanding through acquisitions of local companies.
“We have several companies that have really entered France with momentum by acquiring local businesses. One example is InPost, a technology company, because it is precisely with these kinds of competences that Polish entities can win a place in the already mature French market,” says Joanna Jaroch-Pszeniczna. “We hope that the Treaty of Nancy, which identifies the key areas in which our economies should complement each other, will become a driving force for future investments.”
Further development of economic cooperation is taking place in an environment of increasing uncertainty and market volatility. Companies operating internationally must respond flexibly to economic and geopolitical changes, while the ability to adjust investment strategies quickly is becoming essential.
“Members of management boards confirm that uncertainty is now the norm for them. This means that entrepreneurs must be flexible. Every day, they have to adapt their activities to the current context and find the best solutions for their companies,” says Olivier Degand.
According to the Forvis Mazars “C-suite Barometer 2026” report, the main barriers to business development include growing competition, economic instability and high energy prices, which continue to weigh heavily on companies’ operating costs. At the same time, companies remain relatively optimistic. As many as 92% of executives declare positive expectations for growth in 2026. Technology remains the key area of investment, especially artificial intelligence, indicated by 76% of respondents, while almost all business leaders expect these technologies to improve financial results.
“Digital infrastructure is a very important part of the economy, but also one of the pillars of economic development, alongside defence and energy. We believe this area is closely linked to the other pillars. Our industry needs energy in order to operate. Conversely, the energy sector also needs data centres and digitalisation to maintain its power grid smoothly. Data centres are also part of a country’s defence capabilities,” says Adam Ponichtera.
In practice, cooperation between Poland and France increasingly involves combining competences, from human resources to investment experience. This makes it possible to implement more complex projects in areas such as digital infrastructure and industry.
“We want to use cooperation with France to help Poland develop rapidly in the field of AI components. We are at the beginning of this path, as is the entire industry. By using France’s experience and the incentives that the French government provides to investors in the AI sector, we want to transfer similar solutions to Poland,” says the Managing Director of Data4 in Poland.
